Urban Cable Cars of CINOR

The city of Saint-Denis, located on the small overseas French department of Reunion, is preparing to build the island’s first urban cable car.

At first glance, given the remoteness of Saint-Denis, it’s perhaps one of the last places one would expect to find interest for Cable Propelled Transit (CPT) solutions. Upon closer inspection however, there seems to be considerable merit and tact to the gondola plans.

As the city’s northern coastlines are largely urbanized, it appears that development pressures are now spreading towards the mountain slopes to the south. From a general perspective, these urbanization patterns appear not so dissimilar to those found in other cable transit cities such as Medellin, La Paz and Ecatepec.

Communauté intercommunale du Nord de La Réunion (CINOR), an intercommunal public agency created in 2000 through the agglomeration of three communes, has been responsible for spearheading the island’s urban gondola plans.—

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On its dedicated gondola website, the agency has introduced two ropeway alignments, known collectively as the Urban Cable Cars of CINOR (French: Telepherique Urbain de la CINOR). One proposal is referred to as Bellepierre <> La Montagne while the second is referred to as Chaudron <> Bois-de-Nefles.

The Chaudron <> Bois-de-Nefles Cable Car is the first concept released for public consumption back in late 2016. At 2.5km in length, the 5-station MDG is estimated to benefit not only the 15,000 pupils studying at the University of Reunion, but to also improve transport for the 53,000 residents living in the affected neighbourhoods of Moufia (15,000 residents), Bois-de-Nefles (9,000 residents), and Chaudron (29,000 residents).

While the system is not the longest urban gondola in the world, the system’s size in terms of total stations (5) rival the large cable transit lines found in La Paz (i.e. Blue Line and White Line).

Today, users travelling on road-based transport face considerable congestion due to the steep, and narrow mountain roads. With a 13-minute aerial gondola ride, proponents hope to enhance transit service and attract 6,100 users per day.

Starting last year, CINOR spent three to four months soliciting feedback from stakeholders where it amassed over 1,000 responses and engaged with more than 350 locals. Surveyed results indicate that 85% of respondents are in favour of the cable car.

From the translated materials found online, the proposal appears to be well thought out as it was developed in conjunction with two regional transport plans (Réseau Régional de Transport Guidé – RRTG and Réseau Intégré de Transport Moderne – RITMO).

This week, the construction contract totalling US$53.0 million was officially awarded, paving the way for system commissioning by late 2019.

The second cable transit proposal, located in the west side of Saint Denis, appears to be a much simpler system. With only two stations, 1.3km of ropeway and a ride time of less than 5 minutes, the proposal is designed to improve connectivity between Bellepierre (bottom station) and La Montagne (top station).

Between 1999 – 2012, the population at hillside district of La Montagne grew by 9% to 13,300 residents. In the future, enhanced transit service will be even more critical as 2,250 additional housing units are slated for construction. Already, traffic studies found that road congestion may increase by 15% to 14,000 daily vehicles by 2021 if transport alternatives are not provided.

Given the spectacular views on the plateau, project proponents anticipate that this cable car will play a touristic role as well. Thanks to the work completed for the initial Chaudron <> Bois-de-Nefles Cable Car, CINOR has incorporated many lessons in its second proposal.

From the aerial images and online commentary, route planners were able to design a system that not only reduces visual intrusion and avoids private properties, but conceptualize a cable car that minimizes tower construction. This US$30-35 million 3S cable car is currently designed with only four towers.

Similar to the previous proposal, project proponents have developed the cable car in conjunction with regional transport plans. At the Bertin-Hopital station, passengers will be able to seamlessly transfer to the region’s bus network.

If everything goes according to plan, CINOR hopes to open this cable car by 2020-2021.